I call my talk Wrestling with the Octopus, because learning to become a published author has been a bit like that! My talk covers the ups and downs – and the struggles – of becoming a published author. Since I was seventeen, I dreamed of being a novelist, but with no encouragement and no clear path, my career went in another direction.

It wasn’t until rather late in life that I had my ‘now or never’ moment, when I decided that if I didn’t try, I would always regret it. At last I had the time and the space to dedicate to my dream. But how on earth was I to start?

I describe how I became a student again, how I learned how to begin – and finish – a novel, and what it took to keep myself going. The ins and outs of the strange, mysterious publishing world, the wrestling with plot and character and pace within a single story, the joys and the disappointments all authors experience along the way.

With eight psychological thrillers now published and the next on its way, I talk about my inspiration for these novels, how I found first an agent and then a publisher and the many things I’ve had to learn about becoming a ‘proper’ author.